Category: Reviews

Bryn Oh’s new installation The Gathering, will be formally opening at Immersiva on Tuesday, December 1st. However, she has invited a number of people – myself included –  to experience it a little early. And “experience” is precisely the right word to use here; not only is The Gathering typically immersive and engaging installation by Bryn, it also makes used of Second Life Experiences.

The landing point provides some notes on how to set your viewer, using Firestorm as an example. For those using other viewers, and who can manage it, the optimal set-up for the viewer is to have Advanced lighting Model active, and Shadows set to Sun/Moon + Projectors. It is at the landing point as well that you’ll be asked to join Byrn Oh’s Experience. It’s important that you do if you wish to enjoy The Gathering to the fullest.

Doing so grants the installation certain automatic rights to act on your avatar – notably to animate you and teleport you; these rights will be automatically revoked when you leave Immersiva (and will automatically re-apply themselves whenever you run, unless you remove the Bryn Oh Experience from your list of allowed experiences).

The central element of the installation is the gathering of the title – a private party, somewhat gate crashed by a strange individual with some odd habits. This is told as a series of stanzas from a poem, accompanied by a hand drawn image of the scene each stanza describes, as shown above.

To get to this, however, you have a pass through a landscape offering both distractions in the form of several static and interactive builds, and danger, in the form of huge balls or spheres, which periodically roll down from higher slopes, and which will throw you back to the landing point if they collide with you. These can be avoided in a number of ways – running out of the way, climbing the steeper slopes away from them or otherwise using the landscape to your advantage, or touch one of the small static sphere scattered around the installation.

The latter will animate your avatar, whilst also allowing you to walk. more to the point, they’ll allow you to climb any nearby walls or other elements of the installation, letting you climb nearby walls and escape the dreaded rolling (bowling?) balls. You’ll be able to keep climbing for as long as you “wear” one of the animation spheres, and can walk on the ground using one, but things can take a bit of getting used to. When you stand, you’ll be returned to your normal walk mode.

The builds within the installation include character motifs and other elements which may resonate with those familiar with Bryn’s work, such as the house that constructs itself as you move through it, a concept Bryn used to huge effect in Keep the Streets Empty for Me, a part of Ux Hax and Romy Nayar’s July exhibition Distrito Disinto at MetaLES, which you can read about here.

The Gathering requires careful navigation and a sense of fun – as Bryn notes in her invitation, it can be something better enjoyed when watching other interact with object or as they try to escape the giant balls.

However, it loses not of its engagement when visiting on your own: just be sure to accept the Experience invitation and then run / walk, look, poke, prod and climb! Do, as well, keep an eye out for the projectors play room, and if you’d like some of the sketches from The Gathering, as well as other Bryn goodies, try the Gacha machine at the landing point.

SLurl Details

• The Gathering, Immersiva (Rated: Moderate)

Currently on display at MetaLES through until the 28th of November, is the second part of a four-part series by Ux Hax and Romy Nayar entitled Escenas / Scenes. Each of the four installations offers a specific scene, potentially all from the same story, but not necessarily presented in chronological order.

I confess to having missed the first scene – entitled EL Tiempo / The Time, which ran from November 1st through 14th, although Ziki’s Questi’s coverage was enough to pique my curiosity. Subtitled  I do not look, do not find you, that we would have mattered while ago…, the piece was at once suggestive of a story in and of itself, albeit on a gigantic scale, possibly influenced by  the classic Major Arcana of the occult Tarot in the form of The Hermit, who appeared within the tableau, together with a clock which appeared to be representing death and standing as a backdrop for the struggles of an old woman who seemed to be losing her fight to escape a sandy mire.

Now, the second scene, Decisiones / Decisions, brings the tarot and occult influences more to the fore. Subtitled The crow pointed  the way, but the fortune get me away, the installation is once again on a gigantic scale, and features within it several more of the Major Arcana: Justice, The Chariot, The Hanged Man and The Devil.

Together these form what seems to be the outline of a narrative as Justice, her scales sitting on the Chariot, attempts to reach The Hanged Man, surrounded by the wheel of fortune, repeated several times over. Nearby, The Devil rises from the depths, a hand outstretched, possibly intent on stopping her.

All are additionally watched over by a crow, itself a symbol of witchcraft, mysticism and the occult, being variously seen as harbingers and communicators, and various associated with death, mystery, and magic (and The Magician is another of the Major Arcana), as well as being regarded as embodiment of The Trickster. Which capacity this crow fulfils is impossible to tell. Perhaps, as the subtitle suggests, it is telling / pointing the way. Or perhaps it is The Trickster, warning us that all is not quite as it seems.

I offer absolutely no attempt at interpretation of the scene – I leave that to you when you visit, or for the remaining scenes to unfold and bring their own narratives. What I will say, however, is that when I refer to these installations being on gigantic scale, I mean just that. The figures within them are huge, as the image of me standing alongside the chariot / cart bearing the scales of justice (above) will hopefully show.

SLurl Details

• Escenas / Scenes: Decisiones / Decisions (Rated: Moderate)